Lorraine Fontana - Southern Lesbian Feminist Activist Herstory Project

Celebrating the Anniversary of the Herstory Project

May and June 2024 are multiple anniversaries for the SLFA Herstory Project. It’s the fifteenth anniversary of our first Herstory Project planning workshop at Womonwrites. It’s the tenth anniversary of our first special issue of Sinister Wisdom. And it’s the second anniversary of the launching of this website.

We celebrated the publication of our sixth and final Sinister Wisdom volume two years ago. The six special volumes contain a treasure trove of collected stories, interviews, timelines, and photographs from three decades of twentieth-century, lesbian-feminist activism in Southern states. Now, we are focusing on making these edited interviews available online as we continue to add new interviews.

The herstory of lesbian-feminist activism in the South was rapidly being lost as these stories of unsung sheroes were not being reported in any of the memoirs and histories of the women’s liberation movement in the twentieth century.

Posted on May 5, 2024 Posted in Publishing, Publications, and Booksellers Tagged with 2019 last Womonwrites, 30th Womonwrites Anniversary 2009, Atlanta, Barbara Ester, Beth York, Carol Hanisch, class diversity, consciousness raising groups, Corky Culver, descendent of Womonwrites, Duke University archive, Durham NC, education diversity, first womens land community 1972, first Womonwrites 1979, Florida, Gainesville, Herstory Project 2009, Jaye McNeil, Jessica Lenn Chia, Kathy Sarachild, Knoxville Tennessee, Lennie Lassiter, lesbian activity, Lesbian Connection, Lesbian Home Movie Project, Lorraine Fontana, Mandy Carter, Merril Mushroom, Nashville, New York Radical Womens group, North Forty, old lesbians organizing for change, OLOC, Pagoda project, participant led, race consciousness, reading groups, Rose Norman, Sinister Wisdom, SLFA, Southeast, Southern dykes, Southern Festival, Southern Lesbian Feminist Activist Herstory Project, Southern Women’s Music and Comedy Festival, timeline of activism, twentieth century lesbian feminism activism in Southern states, University of Florida Oral History Program, WeMoon 1973, Womens Liberation Movement, Womonwrites, writing groups

Saralyn Chesnut of the Atlanta Lesbian Feminist Alliance (ALFA)

Saralyn Chesnut of the Atlanta Lesbian Feminist Alliance (ALFA)

Saralyn Chesnut is second from left in this photo from the 2013 Creating Change conference. Pat Hussain is at far right.

“ALFA’s lasting legacy is in women’s lives. The field of women’s studies was not just created by the feminist movement, but by the lesbian-feminist movement.”

Posted on May 19, 2022 Posted in Culture and the Arts, Publishing, Publications, and Booksellers, Social and Political Groups, Social Justice, Women’s Health, and Social Services Tagged with AIDS, Amanda Gable, Amy Darden (Estelle), Atalanta, butch and femme roles, Charis Books and More, Chris Carroll, communal households, Communist Party, dinner co-ops, drag queens, dyke march, EEOC, Eleanor Smith, Elizabeth Knowlton, Emory Office of LGBT Life, Feminary, Feminist Women’s Health Center, Gay and Lesbian Pride, gay liberation, gender, Georgians for the ERA, Hairy Hobbits, Hobbit Habit, Hummingbird Heights, Julia Penelope (Stanley), Lambda Legal, lesbian feminism, Little Five Points (L5P), Lorraine Fontana, mental illness, Moosewood Cookbook, National Gay Task Force, nonmonogamy, Our Bodies, Our Right to Love, Ourselves, patriarchy, pulp novels, racism, rap/Consciousness-raising groups, Reagan, Red Dyke Theatre, Rita Mae Brown, Rubyfruit Jungle, Sappho’s Quarry, Saralyn Chesnut, Sinister Wisdom, Southern Baptist, Stonewall riots, UGA, Vicki Gabriner, white southerner, woman-identified woman, Womansong Theatre, women in print movement, women’s movement, Women’s Policy Group, women’s softball, WRFG

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